1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a side grip for a video camera and, in particular, to a desirable shape of a side grip for a video camera which is compact in size and light weight.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a side grip for a video camera is provided in either side portion of a video camera main body and includes a recording button which can be operated with an operator's thumb when the side grip is gripped by the operator. If the recording button is pushed while picture recording is temporarily stopped, then recording is started and, if the recording button is pushed again, then the recording is caused to stop temporarily. After the recording is started, when the recording button is not operated, the thumb is placed on a thumb rest which is disposed adjacent to the recording button. The thumb rest has an important influence on the stable holding of a camera in photographing. However, the thumb rest results in increasing the thickness of the video camera.
In view of the above problem, and, in order to reduce the thickness of the video camera, as shown in FIG. 9, there has been proposed a structure in which a thumb rest 1 is disposed rotatably around a recording button 2 and, when the thumb rest 1 is in use, the thumb rest 1 is rotated counterclockwise in FIG. 9 to thereby project out from a side portion (that is, a side grip 3) of a video camera main body so that a space for the thumb rest can be secured.
However, the thumb rest made by the rotational movement of the thumb rest 1 cannot be large because of space limits and, therefore, the thumb rest 1 cannot achieve all of its function to a full extent.